Thursday, October 4, 2018

Inktober 2018 - Day 04: SPELL

Inktober 2018 - Day 04 SPELL.
I like really stepping out of the norm, and here's a great example.
(Don't think you're going to find many other dancing vampires for today's Inktober.)

Full digital color version of today's Inktober


Inked with brush pen and then added type and background in Photoshop

I was originally going to submit only my hand-drawn images for Inktober 2018. But now, several days into this, I'm going to go back to the digital format that I used for the past few Inktobers.

Full color sans Text

I'm basically using a font to help create a cleaner and consistent look instead of my handwriting. To me, it looks and reads better.
Original pencil sketch

The original inspiration for this image was from an envelope with my doodles on the back

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Inktober 2018 - Day 03: Roasted

My quickie image for Inktober2018 for Day03 for prompted word: ROASTED

Thought Process: I'm cheating a little. The prompt word immediately made me think of an image I did several months ago of a coffee mug design for my wife.

I wasn't happy with the way the mug came out, and my wife would often ask, "Is that supposed to be me?" I believe it was the way I drew it, and google eyes, and the blank stare that didn't make me completely thrilled with the original final image. So here's a revision of that image.
Revision of the coffee mug design I did for my wife. LINK HERE

Monday, October 1, 2018

Inktober 2018 - Day 01: Poison

My quickie image for Inktober2018 for Day 01 for prompted word: Poison.
Thought Process:
I basically thought of a poison bottle. That's it.
Also posted a real-time video of drawing this image on IGTV. About 6+ minutes long. LINK
The first ink sketch for #Inktober2018 (following the prompt list of daily words.)

How different pens create different images

Someone wrote to me asking why I sometimes mention what pens I'm using for different illustrations. What you use often makes a significant difference in how your final image will look.

Below the middle image shows the original pencil sketch for my Day 01 Inktober 2018 entry. Note the difference of the outer two images on the left and right.

Showing how different brush pens can change the look of a drawing. Click on the image to see a larger version.

The left image is more detailed with finer lines because there was a harder point on that brush pen. So that inspires adding more tighter lines for shading and details. The image on the right was drawn with a softer brush tip, which makes it easier to create the flowing and thicker lines. That pen inspired me to use fewer lines and a simpler iconic look. The end results are quite different even though they were both based on the same pencil sketch.

The quick answer to that original question above:
By mentioning the items used to create an image, allows others to know how they could get similar results by using the same product(s).

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Inktober 2018 - Prompt List

It's that time of year again where I dedicate my warmup sketching hour in the morning to Jake Parker's Inktober. Inktober is a yearly Internet event where people draw ink images and post them online, every day in October.

This year I was going to just sketch, but I didn't enjoy the process that way. So I eventually went back to my inkings, scanning, coloring and adding text in Photoshop format that I've been using for several years now.

This is the daily word prompt list provide by Inktober creator, Jake Parker

Some may not like me adding text, color and polishing my ink sketches for Inktober . . . Too bad. Seriously, if you are one of these people, you really have too much time on your hands. Go draw something.

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Inktober 2018: Arnie Geddon Update

I have been gearing up for Inktober as mentioned previously. The plan is to do the letter-a-day/alphabet with this character Arnie Geddon, but I'm still ironing out his look. It's getting there.

Arnie Geddon, the latest version of the character
I plan to do all images on toned tan paper as seen above, using black brush pens and white pens for highlighting. I've got my ideas and the entire alphabet down on paper. Hopefully, this will all start happening around the end of the first week into Inktober 2018.

Arnie and the pens and paper I will use for his 26 Alphabet pages

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Daily Quick Sketch: Arnie McGeddon

With October approaching, been thinking a lot about what I want to do for Inktober 2018. Last year, in the final week I did several images of a cat character. I like the idea of doing something consistent, instead of a daily random drawing.


My idea is to do an alphabet book for adults using this character. So each day I'll be going through the alphabet, having Arnie interact with each letter of the day.


Saturday, September 15, 2018

Daily Quick Sketch: Burrito VS Taco! (1 of 2)

Funny how inspiration works. One of my favorite Facebook people is Jason Curtis, a cartoonist with a true sense of humor, original wit, and a fantastic simple style. I dislike Facebook, but Jason is one of the few reasons I check in once in a while.

Long story short: Jason did a cartoon one day that had the punch-line asking who would win in a match between a Burrito and a Taco. Somehow that cartoon was in my head when I was trying to sleep, I pictured what that match would look like. So, since I was awake, I drew the two characters.
In this corner, wearing red trucks that are WAY too high up his body -- The Beefy Burrito! 

The original inking of the Burrito character, using a Kuretake ZIG brush pen.
The original pencil sketch
Here's the link for Taco.

Friday, September 14, 2018

Daily Quick Sketch: Burrito VS Taco! (2 of 2)

Here is the Taco character. I felt burrito would be a heavyweight boxer, while poor old Taco would a more frail character.
And in this corner, a simple shell of a man, it is --The Crisp and Breakable Taco!

The original inking of the Taco character, using a Kuretake ZIG brush pen.

The original pencil sketch
Here's the link to Burrito.

Friday, August 10, 2018

Daily Post: Chicken Little (with video)

Today's sketch is one I had around for a while. This was a design for a story I wrote using known fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters. This is my version of Chicken Little. I know traditional, Chicken Little is a cute, little chicken in books, (or a big headed with glasses like in the animated movie.) I wanted very wacky. 

Digital color comp for Chicken Little character


Inking for Chicken Little




Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Daily Sketch: Bug

New concept sketch of a character I'm developing for my latest picture book manuscript, Bug. His name is Allen, a character with an extreme identity crisis.
Swipe to see the original sketch, inking, and color breakdown images.

Sidenote: I used an inking brush setting which resembles a leaky pen. I really like how fluid and random the line becomes.

Final color version

Original pencil sketch

Inking with some shading

Alternative image with color background

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Throwback Thursday: L.B. Monster sketch found

REPOST DUE TO CORRUPT AND/OR LOST IMAGE FILE:
Many posts labelled with Throwback Thursday suddenly missing or corrupt images.
Why is this happening Blogger (aka Google?)
Originally posted on 6/24/16


UPDATE: Color

Marker comp: Coloring LB slightly different than usual . . . testing the waters

UPDATE: Inked version


Brush pen inked version of the found Lumpy Bumpy Monster pencil sketch 

Originally Posted on 1-7-2016 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It's a strange feeling to find some of my work from the past. There's this sense of seeing it with new eyes again as if looking at someone else's work. This one in particular really surprised me. It was hidden on an old hard drive I was cleaning out to scrap.This image was sketched sometime back around 2003.

An old pencil sketch of my series's main character called The Lumpy Bumpy Monster ( aka L.B.)

L.B. (short for Lumpy Bumpy) is one of my oldest and favorite characters to draw. It took me nearly a decade to mold him into the character he is today. Yet, while I have 100s of sketches and drawings, I've yet to ever really do anything with him (and his supporting characters.) L.B. was originally intended to be part of a series of books for children. I felt I needed to be established in the publishing world before I could ever do the tales I wanted with L.B. and Timmons.

I'm sure I will be finding more hidden works on old sketch pads, hard drives, floppy disks and CDs. If I ever get the time, I'd like to clean up and ink this image ...